


Welcome Home

by Halest0rm3



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Adorable, Cute, Cuz she's fucking adorable, F/M, Fluff, Happy being happy, My OTP ship, NaLi - Freeform, Natsu acting like a tough guy, Promises, coming home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-01
Updated: 2014-10-01
Packaged: 2018-02-19 11:56:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2387432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Halest0rm3/pseuds/Halest0rm3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ugh. Everytime I get even close to hating Natsu he has to turn around and do that. Be his stupid fucking adorable self.</p><p>“Let me protect you okay?” His whisper is made of cracked crystal, slightly tired and perfectly gentle. Like he's afraid to break the air around me with words. </p><p>I can be brave, brave as Natsu. I can step forward and hug him like I'm never going to let him go. I can place my head in the crook of his neck and breathe in his scent. I can whisper a silent I love you into his skin and rock slowly back and forth in the silent gusts of wind of the city. I can listen to his heartbeat over the rush of the river behind him.</p><p>I am brave enough. And I do. He's warm, just like the flame he loves.</p><p>“Welcome home”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome Home

"Bye Lisanna, see you tommorow!!"  
"Bye everyone!!! I'll see you tommorow!!"

Is it bad I can't stop smiling? First Mirajanes tender hug, and then Elfman's suffocating embrace and it feels like I can finally breathe for the first time in years. Don't get me wrong Edolas was great, the people there were amazing, but it just didn't feel right. it didn't feel like home. 

And it all just came rushing back to me, the day I saw that red hair dork hiding under a table. It all just came crashing back and I'm just sucking every last drop of the life that I was missing the past two years.

"Welcome home!!" And Mirjane steers me down a street I recognize vividly stopping next to the small little apartment shuffled in between a pizza place and a pet store. Its all how I remember it, from Elfman's little vegetable garden(It takes a man to grow vegetables!!!) to the little wind chime I made out of shards of glass for Mirajane as a birthday gift. Macao had helped me with it, he was the one who taught me the spell that would make it keep spinning even if there wasn't any wind. 

"What do you think? Hasn't changed a lot has it?" And I don't even answer her I just hold her close feeling my sister stroke my hair as tears of joy fall down her cheeks like snowflakes and its all a blur as I walk through the door I never thought I would see again, as the lights open in the room where I grew up. Elfman passes me a warm plate and I gasp as nostalgia takes me back to the old days when I would beg for him to cook this dish for me. 

"One warm apple pie with ice cream on top coming up for the best sister ever" And my heart just melts when I see that he drew a heart with caramel on top. 

"Hey!! Im right here" Mirajane says with mock indignance and Elfman winks at me before replying. 

"Sorry sis you can have second best sister ever if that makes you feel any better" I snort out a laugh in between bites of rich melted ice cream(french vanilla just like I like it none of that soft serve crap) mixed with warm crunchy crust. And then I keep laughing because well there's really no reason to stop and Mirajane laughs too and so does Elfman with his heavy booming chuckles and I'm still laughing so hard that I can't breathe, god help me I can't breathe. 

"Hey Lisanna?"

"Yea Elfman?"

"What was Edolas me like?" Mirajane loops an arm casually around his shoulder and nudges him. 

"What Elfman really wants to know is whether Edolas him was more of a man?"

"Oh you are definitely stronger than Edolas you" I say giggling little champagne bubbles of happiness because its true. I loved Edolas Elfman with all my heart but he could be a bit of a wimp sometimes. Elfman flexes his muscles approvingly.

"But Edolas you could sing and play guitar" Both Elfman and Mirajane gasp in surprise and I tell them about the time he distracted a whole squad of Imperial Soldiers with an improntu song until Natsu could get there with his firebolt car and bowl them all over.  
"And Edolas you was completely different" I say turning to my sister. "Well actually she's really alot like you now, nice to everyone and really happy all the time and just the best sister ever. But before I disappeared you were still Demon Mira and I didn't even recognize you without you showing off skin in one of those cute little tanktops and during the first couple of weeks I kept expecting you to take over into Satan form and blow up the whole building"

"Yea those were the days" Mira says with a hint of nostalgia in her lilt. She's about to say something else but suddenly there's a crash from outside and she gets up to look out the window. 

"Well speak of the devil looks like your little Firebolt's here to see you" She smirks and I suddenly look away because my cheeks are turning red why would he be here? No I am not blushing in front of Mira she'll never let me forget it I am NOT blushing oh god I'm blushing oh god im blushing turn your head away she won't notice oh I'm not fooling anyone its hopeless I'm lighting up like a tomato!

"Don't even think about it" I warn Mira as I open the door and with a wink she ushers me outside before closing the door behind me. 

*****

"Well if she didn't know we were out here she knows now" Happy flies off my head to land on the broken charred stump of what used to be a lightpost.

"crap crap Happy why didn't you tell me there was a pole there???"

"Hehe I can't believe you crashed into a pole" 

"Its not funny!!!! Stupid pole moved or something, crap you don't think she heard did you? It wasn't that loud was it?"

"Aye Sir!!"

"Aye sir what??? Did she hear or not?"

"Aye Sir she heard you crash into a pole and then get mad and melt it with your dragons roar"

"Crap this was stupid lets just go quick come on Happy I'll race you back home"

Happy's response is lost as I turn and catch my breath at the sight of Lisanna stepping carefully toward me, each step that of a princess.

"Hey u-uh I was uh just walking to buy umm... to buy Happy some fish"

"Fish!!" Happy cries while flying loops in the air. His wings disappear midflight and he sprawls on top of Lisannas gorgeous white hair and I just realize that she has bangs now and damn it suits her not that she wasn't dropdead gorgeous before but ugh I need to stop thinking and start talking or she's going to think I'm weird for coming over and just stammering a lot. 

"I mean I wasn't coming to visit you or anything we just happened to pass by and then I remembered you live here" I casually move to the right a little, getting away from the charred stump of a lightpost. Smooth right? That's me, Natsu Dragneel, King of Smooth. 

"Sure you weren't" She says with a smirk, crap can she see through my lie damn it I have to act aloof I knew I should have come up with a better lie damn Lisanna and her ability to pick me apart and disassemble me with only a smirk. That at least hasn't changed in two years. 

Its one of the few things that hasn't though. Taller for one, 

"And the lightpost?" Shit shit shit why am I this nervous I'm a frickin Dragon Slayer for pete's sake!! 

"th-that umm th-that wasn't me... it was some other fire wizard but don't worry I scared him off so its okay" 

"Really??" Lisanna grabs a sleepy Happy off her hair and hugs him tightly with one hand using the together hand to stroke his ears down. Happy purrs with happiness not even bothering to open his eyes as he nestles his head on her shoulder. "Soooo Happy what did this eeeevil dangerous fire wizard look like?"

I really don't appreciate the dose of sarcasm she places on the word evil. Oh well, Happy has my back... I hope.

Happy opens one eye and paws Lisannas's nose playfully before answering. "He was big and scary and he stole aaaall my fish" 

Yes!! Happy backed me up, I'm going to have to get him a nice big fish later, or maybe a bit of catnip he would probably go crazy over that. 

"Well Mr. Salamander I guess I have to repay you somehow for saving me from evil dangerous fire wizards" And my breath catches when she takes a step toward me batting her eyelashes, jesus were her eyelashes always this long okay how do I breathe again? I can smell her, an intoxicating scent of peaches filling my nostrils drowning me in the scent making me forget where I am and how to stand and my hands become strange foreign objects, have I always had them because they're shaking and I don't know where to put them like do they go in my pockets or do I leave them hanging?

*****

Its so nice to see Natsu blush again, the real Natsu anyway. He used to get so shy about it, looking away, getting angry, all to hide the fact he's not the tough guy he always pretends to be. He's just a boy, a boy who smiles with every facet of his face because just teeth and lips isn't nearly enough for the amount of energy in him, a boy whose smirk tilts an inch higher on the right than on the left. His bangs are messy, perpetually, just another fact of being Natsu and I don't even notice my fingers reaching instinctively to fix that one little tuff of hair that always hangs over. I notice Natsu stiffen and almost move my hand back but something tells me that its okay and I suddenly realize that the space between us is small, smaller than its been in far too long and a step forward would be all it would take to erase the space between us, to press myself against him and show him just what I feel with my body, not even kiss necessarily, it doesn't have to be a kiss. I would be happy with just hugging him, fitting my head into the crook of his neck and never letting go. That's if I was just brave enough. 

But I'm not brave enough, Natsu's always been the brave one, the one who was never afraid of anything or anyone, who would take on the world to save a friend and I'm just hopelessly awkward standing here in front of the boy I like and I'm just gawky and he's wonderful and I'm just dreadfully nervous as much as he is naively perfect so I don't step closer, I fix his little tuff of hair and I step back for some room because the air suddenly seems far too thick to breathe and far too hot to think.

“I've missed you” I say because its true. I missed him so much and the worst part was I couldn't even cry about missing him because he was there in Edolas and so was Mirajane and Elfman, and at night when I would cry over him, over everything, they would hear me, and I couldn't tell them what was wrong because how do you tell someone their sister is actually dead so I stopped crying at night and they stopped asking and it just stayed with me this whole time, a glacier in my heart, but now its melting, everything's melting and I don't know what to do because I can't catch water with my hands and I don't know what to do and I'm scared. I'm scared even when I'm happier than I've been in forever. 

Being back here makes me feel like I'm at the top of the world... i-its just a long way down to fall

I feel a single tear roll down my cheek and I close my eyes angrily because I have no right to be crying, not now, not when I'm back home. That's when I feel his arms close around me, locking me in his warmth, pressing me against him. He smells like the forest he used to spend so much time in I used to be taller than him a small part of my addled mind thinks as I place my head against his chest and look up at his face. His cheek is wet and if I didn't have my arms trapped by his I would reach up and dry it because Natsu of all people should never, can never cry. Not if I can help it.

“Why are you crying?” I whisper, an infinitesimally loud whisper in the space between the two of us 

“I broke my promise to you” He doesn't look at me as he says this, no matter how much I try to catch his eyes.

“What promise?”

“After the Forest Vulcan almost crushed you, the day Gildarts saved us... y-you, you asked me if I would come find you the next time you disappeared? And I said yes, I promised you, b-but when you did disappear...”

Natsu pulls away from me, close enough that I can still feel his breath, the contours of his body pressing against mine, but far enough away that I no longer feel his heart beat against my skin, making the air feel just a little bit colder. He finally meets my gaze albeit begrudgingly, and I see a deep shard of sadness in them, the same shard I've seen in my own since I left. 

“W-when you did disappear... I didn't do anything, I didn't find you I didn't save you I didn't even try!!! I left you behind, I left you on your own, I left you...”

“N-natsu” He pulls away and I shiver involuntarily, not even realizing how cold the night had gotten trapped in his arms. 

“Im sorry” 

 

“N-natsu...”

“Im sorry”

“Natsu its okay, there was nothing you could do, you thought I was dead, everybody thought I was dead its not your fault” The words come spilling out in a stuttering mess of tongue hitting teeth and brain hitting wall because I don't know how to talk to him anymore, I'm scared he'll blame me for leaving him, I'm scared that 2 years put an irreparable wall of space in between me and him. 

“But I could have looked!! They never recovered your body, I could have tried to find it, I could have done something!!” I can't help but step back a little from the fire in his eyes. Its so different from Natsu, from the playful chaos I grew up with. 

“Looked where Natsu? I was in an alternate dimension for crying out loud!!”

“I don't know, looked somewhere... maybe asked Gildarts for help” The way he refuses to meet my eyes is familiar. He always was stubborn when he believed he was right. 

“Natsu its not your fault none of this is yo-”

“No it's my fault! Everything's my fault” And he kicks the charred stump of the lightpost off its base into the side of the building on the other side of the river. The startled scream of a woman is followed by an angry old man poking his head out to look for the culprit.

“What do you want Natsu?? Do you want me to forgive you?? Because I do, I forgive you a thousand times over even though I have nothing to forgive because you didn't do anything wrong!!” He can be so _exasperating_ sometimes, like why can't he just once, just once admit that maybe he's human. That he can mess up, that there's things he can't do and things he doesn't know. His stupid goddamn tough guy act!! I wish he would quit it just once, just now, maybe be happy because the girl he thought was dead actually turned out to be alive. Is that really so much to ask?

He doesn't answer, maybe out of surprise that I actually raised my voice against him, more likely out of spite. 

“You know if you keep up that tough guy act...”

 _“keep up that tough guy act and I'll never get a girl to like me yea whatever”_ He says in a mockery of my voice that hurts me a little more than I care to admit. “I don't really care about whether girls like me or not. I just want you to be safe okay?” 

“I can protect myself you know? Im not a child anymore” The stupid idiot, the stupid goddamn idiot is so frickin annoying treating me like a fucking child and all I want to do is just go back inside and slam the door or I don't even know just whatever. 

He doesn't answer, he doesn't look, even when Happy tries to pull his head towards me. Happy has silent tears running down his cheeks and it makes me want to cry but I'm not I can't!! Not in front of Natsu. 

“Its not your job to protect me” I say in a tired sigh. I'm not angry anymore, or at least I don't really know what I am right now. All I know is that the ice cream on top of my apple pie is probably melted by now and locking myself in my room seems like a much more tantalizing choice by the second. 

When he doesn't respond I turn back towards the house, my house, half tears forming on the corners of my eyelids as I wipe them away angrily. 

“Aren't we a family?” I hear him whisper.

“What?”

“Its a dad's job to take car of his family... like when I took care of that stupid monkey. Are you no longer my wife? Isn't Happy our son?”

Ugh. Everytime I get even close to hating Natsu he has to turn around and do that. Be his stupid fucking adorable self. 

“Of course we're a family... You, me, Happy” 

“Let me protect you okay?" His whisper is made of cracked crystal, slightly tired and perfectly gentle. Like he's afraid to break the air around me with words.

I can be brave, brave as Natsu. I can step forward and hug him like I'm never going to let him go. I can place my head in the crook of his neck and breathe in his scent. I can whisper a silent I love you into his skin and rock slowly back and forth in the silent gusts of wind of the city. I can listen to his heartbeat over the rush of the river behind him. 

I am brave enough. And I do. He's warm, just like the flame he loves.

“Welcome home” I hear him say.

 

_“Come in”_

_“Huh”_

_“Welcome Home”_

_“Huh, oh right”_

_“Wel-come Ho-me!”_

_“I-I'm H-home?”_

 

“Wel-come ho-me!” Oh right I haven't responded yet. 

“I'm home!” His hand pulls my hair back from my face and I feel a rush of current as his eyes meet mine. 

“Hell yea you are” His lips are only a fraction of a wish away. I lean in and...

“Aye sir!!” Happy crashes into me in a delirious hug sending us toppling to the side right into the foamy river. The freezing cold water makes me gasp, until I realize Natsu is still holding on even as he struggles to keep afloat. 

That little idiot. 

My fucking adorable little Fireball.

**Author's Note:**

> NALI ALL THE WAY!!!  
> So yea first non-homestuck fic TELL ME WHAT YA THINK XDDD  
> Also you guys should like totally follow my tumblr poetry blog http://2amstuff.tumblr.com/  
> Love y'all!!!!


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